Artisan Bread

A couple of years ago artisan bread baking took the culinary world by storm. The new attention that bread baking at home suddenly got was thanks to a beautiful book called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François. It changed the way the world looked at making bread at home. The basic master dough, or master boule, barely took 5 minutes to make, a no-knead dough, and after a rest of 2-5 hours was ready to head into the oven. Even better, the dough kept for 2 weeks in the fridge, promising you your daily bread!

What exactly is Artisan bread? A friend of mine on twitter asked me this question the other day, and left me fumbling for the right answer. A ‘Google’ later, there we were!Artisan bread is exactly what its name suggests: bread that is crafted, rather than mass produced. Baked in small batches rather than on a vast assembly line, artisan bread differs from prepackaged supermarket loaves in a number of ways. It uses very basic ingredients, can include a variety of flavours like onions, bell peppers, olives, fresh herbs, cheese etc, and most importantly, doesn’t use preservatives.

AB in 5 revolutionised the way I looked at yeast and fresh baked bread. No more passing by bakeries and longing for those good looking loaves. I’ve mastered the art of bread baking at home to some extent, and now French fougasse, focaccia, ciabatta, baugette and peasant loaves are all within arms reach. There can be nothing better than fresh baked bread, warm out of the oven. I am delighted to share a basic recipe here with permission from one of the co-authors of the book, Zoë François, who I have the pleasure of ‘virtually’ talking with often on twitter.

* Heat the water to just a little warmer than body temperature, luke warm. * Add yeast and salt to the water in a 5 litre resealable, lidded container (not airtight). Mix in bell pepper if using, keeping a little bit for the top. * Mix in the flour with a wooden spoon, a high-capacity food processor with dough attachment, or a heavy-duty stand mixer with dough hook, until uniformly moist. If hand-mixing becomes too difficult, use very wet hands to press it together. Don’t knead! This step is done in a matter of minutes, and yields a wet dough loose enough to conform to the container. * Cover loosely. Do not use screw-topped jars, which could explode from trapped gases. Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse (or at least flatten on top), approximately two hours, depending on temperature. You can use a portion of the dough any time after this period. Refrigerated wet dough is less sticky and easier to work with than room-temperature dough. We recommend refrigerating the dough at least three hours before shaping a loaf. * Prepare a pizza peel/baking tray by sprinkling it liberally with cornmeal to prevent the loaf from sticking to it when you slide it into the oven. (I sometimes line it with baking parchment sprinkled with cornmeal) * Sprinkle the surface of the dough with flour, then cut off a ½ kilo piece with a serrated knife. Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won’t stick to your hands. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on four “sides,” rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go, until the bottom is a collection of four bunched ends. Most of the dusting flour will fall off; it doesn’t need to be incorporated. The bottom of the loaf will flatten out during resting and baking. * Place the ball on the prepared sheet. Let it rest uncovered for about 40 minutes. * Twenty minutes before baking, preheat oven to 230C degrees. Place an empty broiler tray for holding water on another shelf. * Dust the top of the loaf liberally with flour, which will allow the slashing, serrated knife to pass without sticking. Slash a 1?4-inch-deep cross, scallop or tick-tack-toe pattern into the top. (This helps the bread expand during baking.) * Your browser may not support display of this image. Quickly but carefully pour about a cup of hot water into the broiler tray and close the oven door to trap the steam. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is browned and firm to the touch. Allow to cool completely, preferably on a wire rack, for best flavor, texture and slicing. The perfect crust may initially soften, but will firm up again when cooled. * Refrigerate the remaining dough in your lidded (not airtight) container and use it over the next two weeks: You’ll find that even one day’s storage improves the flavor and texture of your bread. This maturation continues over the two-week period.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

Author

Deeba Rajpal's passions in life are baking, cooking, nature, art and photography. She has two kids, a daughter who is 14, and a son who is 11, both foodies through and through. Her better half is her greatest critic, and motivation for her culinary adventures!
Travel, macarons, food styling & recipe development are her other interests.
Deeba also blogs at passionateaboutbaking.com. Find her on twitter.com/vindee

Deeba Rajpal's passions in life are baking, cooking, nature, art and photography. She has two kids, a daughter who is 14, and a son who is 11, both foodies . . .

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Author

Deeba Rajpal's passions in life are baking, cooking, nature, art and photography. She has two kids, a daughter who is 14, and a son who is 11, both foodies through and through. Her better half is her greatest critic, and motivation for her culinary adventures!
Travel, macarons, food styling & recipe development are her other interests.
Deeba also blogs at passionateaboutbaking.com. Find her on twitter.com/vindee

Deeba Rajpal's passions in life are baking, cooking, nature, art and photography. She has two kids, a daughter who is 14, and a son who is 11, both foodies . . .